7 
In some places, especially in parts of the north, the bees are sometimes unable 
to ripen and seal the honey gathered from aster and other late sources owing to the 
rapid onset of cold weather. Such unripe honey is liable to ferment, and in this 
condition it will quidkly cause dysentery. 
Dysentery and death will also rapidly follow the consumption of winter stores 
consisting partly of fruit juices gathered by the bees, for instance, from over-ripe 
raspberries, or from plums that have been punctured by birds or insects, or from 
blueberries that have been burst by frost. Honey-dew, the excretion of plant lice 
dropped on the leaves of trees and collected by the bees, is also very injurious, because 
it contains a large proportion of indigestible matter. Fortunately, it is produced and 
collected by the bees less. frequently and less extensively in Canada than to the south. 
The best substitute for unwholesome stores is a pure sugar syrup made by stirring 
two parts by measure of granulated sugar into one of boiling water and allowing it 
to cool. This syrup should be given about the middle of September, or in southern 
Ontario, early in October. This will give the bees time to cap over most of the syrup 
while the weather remains warm, and to consume enough to form an area of empty 
cells in the lower part of the middle combs for the winter cluster to occupy before cold 
weather. The syrup should be given in feeders placed in the hives. A 10-pound 
honey pail with a mumber of small holes punched in the lid and placed upside down 
over the combs makes a good feeder. 
In most places the stores left in the hive after the supers have been removed in 
the fall are from mixed sources, and only fair in quality. They are also usually 
deficient in quantity. A good and widespread practice is to feed each colony with 
syrup enough to bring it to a sufficient weight, giving in no case less than about 15 
_pounds. The syrup being stored close to the cluster is consumed before the honey, 
end thus the accumulation of feces is delayed. 
The quantity of stores to be left or provided for the winter should be estimated 
liberally. The quantity that a colony consumes varies considerably, and when the 
stores are inferior, may be more than twice as much as when they are good. Heavy 
consumption of stores also results from several other causes. Bees wintering outside 
consume more stores than in the cellar. The most common cause of the death of 
colonies in winter is starvation by the exhaustion of their stores. As a general state- 
ment, it may be said that at least 40 pounds of stores should be left with each colony in 
order to last it from the time of feeding in September until new honey is collected 
in the spring. Although the winter consumption may not reach 20 pounds per colony 
in some colonies, much or all of the surplus will be needed for feeding in the spring. 
Since the ordinary factory-made single-walled 10-frame Langstroth hive of 
eastern white pine, with the combs, pollen, and bees, but without the cover, usually 
weighs, if dry, between 30 and 40 pounds, such a hive when ready for winter should 
weigh between 70 and 80 pounds. In addition to the stores left in the hive, the bee- 
keeper will be well advised to set aside combs of honey to be given to the colonies in 
spring. 
PROTECTION FROM COLD. 
There are two ways of protecting bees during winter—out of doors in cases filled 
with packing material, and indoors in the cellar. Generally speaking, the packing 
case is preferable in southern Ontario, the Amnapolis Valley, N.S., and British 
Columbia, in all of which places the winter is comparatively mild, and the cellar is 
more satisfactory in the north and on the prairies. But in many places, that is to 
gay, in the wide belt where both methods produce about equally good results, a more 
